Politics

Why does it seem like major establishment news outlets come out with the exact same talking points so often? This time, the mainstream media in both the United States and in the UK are placing blame for an economic collapse that hasn’t even happened yet on the Tea Party movement and on opponents of the Federal Reserve. Of course it is completely and totally ridiculous to even think for a moment that the Tea Party could be responsible for our current financial problems. The Tea Party is still basically brand new, and even though they gained a a number of seats in Congress during this past election, they still have far, far less power than the establishment Democrats or the establishment Republicans. The notion that the Tea Party could be responsible for plunging the entire globe into a devastating economic depression is absolutely hilarious. But that is exactly what some major mainstream media outlets are actually suggesting. (Read More...)

Once upon a time, news anchors at least attempted to conduct themselves in a professional manner. But on election night 2010, quite a few of the anchors on the various news networks threw all standards of professionalism right out the window and did everything they could to demonize the Tea Party movement. As you will see below, Tea Party candidates were not just called “wacky”, “kooky” and “extremists” on Tuesday night. On MSNBC alone, Michelle Bachmann was repeatedly asked if she was “hypnotized” as the news anchors openly laughed at her while she was being interviewed, and there was a roundtable discussion which went on for an extended period of time about how Rand Paul, by himself, was going to cause a massive worldwide economic depression. If MSNBC even had an ounce of integrity left they would fire the whole team of anchors that covered election night, but we all know that is not going to happen. The truth is that the establishment is scared to death of the Tea Party movement now, and the executives at these various networks will almost certainly be directing their news people to demonize prominent Tea Party politicians more than ever. (Read More...)

The American people are mad. No, check that, they are steaming mad. In the weeks leading up to the election, poll after poll after poll has shown that the American people are angrier at government than at any other point in modern U.S. history. American voters have been angry before, but this time it is different. Instead of being mad at just one political party, the American people are now clearly disgusted with both political parties. Neither major party has a positive approval rating. People are sick and tired of the economy being in the tank, they are sick and tired of not being able to get good jobs and they are sick and tired of the nonsense that has been going on in Washington. Both political parties are busy pointing fingers at each other, but what all the major polls in the weeks leading up to the election clearly show is that the American people are placing the blame on both the Republicans and the Democrats. In fact, as you will see below, a clear majority of the American people now wish that they could throw every member of Congress out of office and a clear majority of the American people now wish that they had a third political party to vote for. We have arrived at a point where both political parties have lost the faith of the American people, and where we go from here is anyone’s guess. (Read More...)

With just a few precious days to go until the November elections, politicians across the United States are pulling out all the stops in an effort to get elected. Vicious attack ads are seemingly everywhere. In fact, many analysts are already proclaiming that 2010 is the dirtiest election cycle of all time. When it comes to politics, the truth is that it is a lot easier to communicate one really bad thing about your opponent than it is to communicate a whole bunch of small positive things about yourself. As the old saying goes, drivers are not going to slow down to look at a pretty sunset, but they certainly will slow down to look at a really bad car wreck. In the waning weeks of the 2010 election, candidates across the United States are desperately attempting to manufacture those “car wreck moments”. This has resulted in an absolute flood of vicious political attack ads popping up on television in recent days. If the Founding Fathers could look back on us now, do you think they would be proud of how we are conducting ourselves? (Read More...)

Is insider trading wrong? Most Americans would say that it is. In fact, some very wealthy and very prominent Americans (including Martha Stewart) have gone to prison for it. It just is not right for those with inside information that is not generally available to the public to make huge profits in the stock market by making key trades based on that information. But there is one group, members of the U.S. Congress, that can do all the insider trading they want and get away with it. That is because insider trading is perfectly legal for members of Congress. Yes, you read that correctly. So how would that work? Well, for example, a member of Congress may know that a law that is about to be proposed would have a very positive effect on a particular company and could buy up a ton of stock in that company a few days before that law is introduced. Isn’t that wrong? Of course. Is there any law against it? Not at all. (Read More...)

As the November elections draw near, a number of polling organizations have been asking the American people fundamental questions about what they believe about politics and what they believe about government. So what have these polls shown? Well, it is undeniable that distrust and dissatisfaction with the government is growing. The American people are getting fed up with what is going on in Washington. It is also clear that the number of Americans that are in favor of big government is decreasing. But it is actually more complicated than that. It appears that the American people want the government to get off their backs, but they also want the government to do more and to provide more services. The American people apparently want fewer laws but more protections. The American people seem to want lower taxes but also more government spending to stimulate the economy. In other words, the American people want to have their cake and eat it too. (Read More...)

Did you know that there are two different sets of federal income tax rules in the United States? It’s true. Each year, most U.S. taxpayers either pay income tax under the system that most of us are familiar with or they pay the “Alternative Minimum Tax” – whichever amount ends up being greater. For years, the U.S. Congress has passed one year “fixes” that have exempted millions of middle class American families from the Alternative Minimum Tax. This has essentially been a huge tax cut each year for those millions of American families. But this year, the Democrat-controlled Congress has not passed a “patch” for the Alternative Minimum Tax. So now one out of every six U.S. taxpayers is going to be hit by the Alternative Minimum Tax. The taxpayers most likely to be affected are married couples, very large families, home owners and taxpayers in states that have high state and local taxes. The average tax increase that these taxpayers will be facing is going to be approximately $3,900 and most of them have no idea that it is coming. At a time when an increasing number of families is barely getting by, a tax increase of this magnitude is simply going to crush the American Dream for literally millions of families. Talk about a cruel surprise for tens of millions of Americans this upcoming tax season! (Read More...)

Have you ever noticed that no matter what political party is in power in America nothing really seems to change that much? Sure, a lot of the faces change and there are some small shifts in ideology here and there, but more or less the policies of the U.S. government have been remarkably consistent over the last 40 years. Have you ever wondered why that is? Well, the truth is that America’s “ruling class” has an absolute stranglehold on both political parties. You see, the little lie that we were told that “anyone can grow up and be president” simply is not true. Living the American Dream takes connections. Without the backing of the “establishment”, you simply are not going to go very far in politics. In fact, without the “establishment” you aren’t going to go very far in law, the corporate world, the media or in the highest levels of education either. Sure you might experience some success on the lower levels, but without fully becoming “connected” to the establishment to at least some degree you just are not going to advance to become one of the elite in any of those fields. (Read More...)

The Tea Party movement has been one of the most exhilarating things to happen to American politics in decades. Millions of Americans who have become increasingly frustrated with government and who feel that they are not being represented have banded together to take collective action in what is truly one of the greatest grass roots movements in U.S. political history. Some have even suggested that the Tea Party movement should become a new political party. Every single day now, the Tea Party movement makes headlines all over the globe and it has had some tremendous success in getting some candidates elected recently. But are there problems on the horizon? The truth is that there are only a few things that almost everyone in the Tea Party movement agrees on. But there are a whole bunch of issues that are creating major ideological divisions among Tea Party activists. In fact, most of the issues listed below will create huge arguments at any Tea Party gathering. The reality is that the Tea Party movement has attracted a very diverse group of people, and there are only a few points that they all agree on. So can such a fractured movement survive in the long-term? (Read More...)